Secrets And Death
by Anette Chase
Summary: Yugi and Yami are on Death Row. Oneshot


Okay, this is actually a project for Government class, we had to do something creative that had to do with something we'd talked about in class, and this is what I did. One-shot, Take this however you like.

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!

Warning: Some possible shonen-ai, if you care to interpret it that way.

/Yami talking to Yugi mentally/

/Yugi talking to Yami mentally/

Secrets and Death

* * *

Yugi Mutoh lay sobbing, face down, on the plush bed in his soulroom. Normally the _hikari_ was a quite content and even cheerful young man, and his soulroom reflected that as well as the innocence he still possessed within himself, with the bright paint on the walls and the numerous toys scattered about on the floor. However, the current situation was far from normal, even for little Yugi.

He and his _yami_, Yami no Yugi, had been on death row for nearly five years. Yami (or rather, Yugi, as only a handful of people knew about Yami) had been found guilty of murder. Only Yugi and Yami knew the truth about what had happened that night, and other than their one-time friends no one could possibly understand…

Seto Kaiba had somehow gained possession of the Millennium Eye. When he did so, an evil spirit calles Gosha took over the young CEO's body and utterly destroyed his soul. Yami, being the Spirit of the Millennium Puzzle, and Yami no Bakura(a.k.a. Bakura), being the Spirit of the Millennium Ring, discovered that the only way to stop Gosha was for him to die. Bakura died in the attempt and his _hikari_, Ryou Bakura, went insane and killed himself only minutes later.

Somehow when Bakura died, he passed on the powers of the Millennium Ring to Yami, and he was able to destroy Gosha once and for all. Unfortunately, Mokuba Kaiba, Seto's younger brother, came into the room at that moment and had Yami arrested. There was no use in trying to explain what had happened to Seto to the young teen, so Yami went along quietly, unable to ignore his _aibou_'s tears.

Now nearly five years later, the only chance the two young men had was gone. They had only tried one appeal, feeling that if they didn't succeed the first time, that they never would. They lost and were to be put to death in two weeks.

Yami, a near carbon copy of Yugi now, entered Yugi's soulroom quietly and put his arms around the younger man and allowed him to cry.

_/Sh… it will be alright, _aibou/

Yugi looked up at Yami with tears still pouring down his face. _/What do you mean, it'll be alright! We're gonna DIE, Yami! I'm all of twenty-two years old, unlike you. I wanted to LIVE my life, not waste it away on death row/_

Yami held his hikari closer, tears welling up in his eyes as well. _/I know, _aibou_, I know. If I had known Mokuba was that close, I would have cloaked us, you know that. This is entirely my fault…/_

Yugi wiped his eyes and stared at his darker half. _/No, it's not, _mou hitori no boku_. There's no one to blame but Gosha. If he hadn't possessed Kaiba, or if he's possessed Pegasus instead…/_

_/No playing the 'if' game, _hikari_. It only brings you headaches and heartache./_

'_Too true…,'_ Yugi sighed, keeping his thoughts shielded from Yami. _'If only I dared to tell…'_

The two tri-colored haired men fell asleep, holding each other, unaware of anything else in the world.

* * *

Up in the Otherworld, two white haired teenage angels floated next to each other.

"Bakura, they're actually going to kill Yugi and Yami!" The shorter one said, with a British accent.

The taller boy nodded. "_Hai_, _hikari_. I know."

The shorter boy glared at Bakura with his piercing blue eyes. "Darn it, there's gotta be SOMETHING we can do!"

Now Bakura glared at the younger boy and ice blue met rich brown. "Ryou, need I remind you we're DEAD! There's absolutely NOTHING we can do! Besides, it's the Pharaoh _no_ _baka_'s fault that we're dead. Why should we help him or his half-pint _hikari_?"

Ryou slapped his yami. "I don't see how you got into this 'heaven', when you should be down below with the other insensitive jerks!"

"_Yadounishi…_You and I both know that you wouldn't wish your worst enemy to Hell after seeing it up close."

Ryou shuddered and silently agreed with the ex-tomb robber.

"Besides," Bakura continued, "even if I DID want to help, we can't. We're-"

"Yes, yes, we're dead. I'm not blind, you know."

"Bakura snorted. "So what do you suppose we do? Go see if we can become ghosts or something?"

At the speculative gleam in the _hikari_'s ice blue eyes, Bakura knew he shouldn't have said anything.

* * *

"Hey! Time to eat, maggot!"

Yugi groaned, hating the grating voice of the prison guard even more today.

"_Urusai, baka…"_ he mumbled, unheard by the guard. The food came into the room and Yugi ate it half-heartedly.

'_Why do I even bother? I should just quit eating. That'll save them the trouble of having to inject that crap into me blood or whatever it is they do here…'_

Aibou_, you are not going to kill yourself/_

Shimatta!_ Why not, Yami? We have all of ten days left to live. Why not just get it over with/_

_/Because no one other than God or the gods (take your pick) should have the right to make that choice…/_

_/That's a laugh, coming from you. Bakura always talked about the merciless Pharaoh who slaughtered --/_

_/Aibou/_

_/… _Gomen ne, mou hitori no boku_. I shouldn't have mentioned that./_

_/Do not worry about it. I just never imagined that _you_, of all people, would say that…/_

Yugi sighed, lay on his bed in the dark dingy cell, and fell asleep, his heart aching dully. The food was entirely forgotten.

* * *

Anzu Mazaki shook her head as she tried to wake up.

'_Another beautiful morning!' _she grinned._ 'I only hope it doesn't rain…'_ Anzu turnes on the television in her room and gasped when she saw here old friend, Yugi Mutoh, on the news. What was even more shocking was WHY he was on the news…

'_They can't kill Yugi! He didn't do anything, I KNOW he didn't!'_

Her phone rang and she absently answered it.

"Anzu!" The other voice yelled. "D'ya see th' news?"

"They're gonna kill him, Jou!" Anzu began to cry and Jou could tell that the dancer was distraught.

"Woah, woah, woah, hold up a minute! We may jes be able ta do somethin'."

"What! He's on DEATH ROW! He told me the one and only time he wrote me that he and Yami were only going to appeal once. They thought –"

"Dey thought dat if dey couldn' do it th' firs' time, it'd neva work, right?"

"Yeah…"

"Well…what if we were able ta get 'em outta dere?"

"Where could they go! They're wanted in America, Japan –"

"All 'cause o' Mokuba."

There was silence for a few moments as what Jou meant to attempt to do sank in.

"You're going to try to get Mokuba to get them out, aren't you?"

Jou laughed. "If I told ya that, I'd have ta kill ye."

Anzu growled. "Are all cops as pig-headed as you?"

"Are all dancers as obsessed wit' friendship as you?"

"Take that back, Jou!" Anzu began ranting, and Jou gave up.

"Alright already, sheesh! Anywho, talk ta ya later, aight?"

"Alright. G'night, Jou."

"G'mornin', Anzu."

As Anzu hung up the phone, she silently wondered how she'd ever get the hang of talking to people on the phone from three time zones away…'Stupid Californians…' (A/N No offence meant!)

* * *

Back up in the Otherworld, Ryou, Bakura, and a young girl were talking as little puffy white clouds drifted by.

"There's nothing that can be done, Ryou. _Gomen, nii-san. _You know the rules as well as I do by now. We can't go back unless we have some sort of privilege."

Ryou sighed and looked down at his younger sister. "Do you know of anyone who has that kind of privilege, Amane?"

She shook her head. "There's only a couple of guys that have ever been able to, one of them is stuck up here for a long time, and the other one went back and he was given his life back. The only thing we can do now, Ryou, is to hope for the best and help your friends when they get up here."

"Yugi…" Ryou whimpered, and Bakura gave his_ hikari_ an awkward one-armed hug. He thanked Amane and guided the white haired teen away.

* * *

_/Yugi? _O genki desu ka, aibou/

/Aa. Daijoubou./

Yami frowned, looking into Yugi's amethyst eyes. _/There is something wrong./_

_/Other than the fact that we only have a few hours left to live/_

_/Is that the problem/_

Yugi glared at his _yami_ angrily._ /What do you think? I'm twenty-two – TWENTY-TWO! – and I'm going to die! I've left so many things left unsaid, so many things left undone…I don't even have a high school diploma/_

Yami lowered his crimson eyes and sat on one of the millions of stairs in his soulroom. Aibou…_if you could do anything – anything at all – before you died, what would it be/_

Yugi sat next to Yami on the stair and stared off into space, lost in thought. _/Hm… I don't know, really. There's nothing really that I can do, other that call _Ojii-chan_, and he doesn't even know what really happened. He's probably disowned me by now…And who can balme him? We didn't exactly do the best thing in the world. Yami, we KILLED someone, and I can't deal with that! I know he would have killed us, but does that really justify it/_

_/Yugi, calm down. Now, pretend that we WEREN'T stuck in here and we had all the time in the world. What would you do/_

_/Well…I kinda always thought I'd like to be an archaeologist, like Prof. Hawkins. That way, I might could help you get your memories back. I'd also like to just be able to go and hang out with the gang again, just one last time. At least I know that they'll all know that I'll miss them./_ Tears began to form in little Yugi's eyes. _/I'll never get to get married, or have kids. I'll never get to see everyone again, I don't even know if anyone remembers me! I hope Marik got his motorcycle shop. Did Isis ever forgive him, I wonder/_

_/I don't suppose we'll ever know, _aibou. /

Yugi had a gleam in his eye that had nothing to do with the tears that had vanished. _/So, what would you be doing/_

Yami shrugged. _/I'd be with you, wherever you go. We can never be separated, even by death./_

_/Pretend you weren't stuck with me. What would you do/_

_/I am NOT 'stuck' with you. I'd still be with you. I'm sworn to protect you, you are my _hikari_. It is the _yami's_ duty to protect the light…I would like to see Egypt again, though…And…/_

_/And/_

Yami looked away from Yugi nervously.

_/And what, Yami? C'mon…it's not like I'm gonna be able to tell anyone./_

Yugi smiled up at Yami, who had turned to look at the little _hikari_.

_/Never mind. This is a secret I can tell no one./ _

The smile on Yugi's face vanished and Yami shook his head.

_/It's not that it's really important--/_

'_LIAR!'_ A part of Yami's brain yelled at him; he resolutely ignored it.

_/-- I just really don't want to tell anyone./_

Yugi still looked a bit sad, but nodded. _/I think I know how you feel, _mou hitori no boku._ Everyone has to have their secrets…/_ He sighed then smiled slightly. _/Heh. Do you remember when we first met/_

Aa_. How could I forget? If I remember correctly, you were terrified of me…/_

_/Well, I thought you were evil! You were going to let Kaiba jump so you could win the duel, after all./_

_/I've changed in the last seven years. And it's all thanks to you, _aibou. /

Yugi blushed, but in the dim light Yami didn't notice it.

_/Hey! Remember the time Anzu, Shizuka, and Mai made Jou, Ootogi, and Honda dress up as three of the Sailor _Senshi/

_/Ah…Sailors Venus, Mars, and Uranus…/_

The two broke down into fits of laughter as they recalled many more such memories…

* * *

A few hours later, Yami suddenly looked serious. _/It's time./_

The light in Yugi's eyes dulled. _/I'm scared Yami./_

Yami hugged his _aibou_ one last time. _/Me too, _aibou._ Me too./_

Yugi sniffed as he tried not to cry again._ /At least we get to go together./_

Yami nodded._ /That we do. Yugi…please let me take the injection./_

The younger man stared up at his _yami_ in confusion._ /Nani/_

_/ You shouldn't have to take this pain as those chemicals burn through your veins. I'm the one who killed Kaiba, not you. Besides, this way, you won't feel any pain. You'll just drift off to sleep…/_

_/Yami…/ _Yugi hugged the older man tightly. _/You don't have to do this…/_

_/But I do! I am your_ yami_, I have to protect you for as long as I can! And you did nothing wrong…I did./_

_/You did what you felt you needed to be done, _mou hitori no boku. /

_/I still did not have the right to take his life./_

_/Many people would have died had you not done what you did! This way, only five people had to die…us, the Bakuras, and Seto. Five is better than hundreds or thousands, wouldn't you say/_

Yami had no time to reply, as the chaplain (priest?) came into the cell at that moment, and he was forced to part with his precious light.

* * *

The next morning Anzu, Jou, Honda, Shizuka, and all of Yugi's friends gathered at Jou's house to mourn the loss of their dear friend. All of them had received near identical letters from the two near identical men, basically saying that they loved all of them and what had happened to Seto on that fateful night.

Anzu, predictably, was in tears. The others mourned in whatever way they saw fit.

Unnoticed by the group of mourners, five not quite opaque figures stood in the room with them. One of the figures, very tall compared to the other four, reached out and put a hand on Anzu's shoulder and whispered in her ear. For a brief moment, she looked up and saw the five figures, but she blinked, and they were gone.

"What is it, Anzu?" Shizuka asked, seeing the stunned look on her friend's face.

"I thought I saw…" she smiled and shook her head. "Never mind. I'm sure they're happy now…All of them."

* * *

Up above the house, Yugi and Yami grinned at Seto, Ryou, and Bakura.

"So?" Yugi asked. "What's next?"

Bakura smirked. "The biggest payback of a lifetime…Pharaoh, I challenge you to a duel!"

The group of five angels laughed. As they floated off, Yugi asked, "Yami? What was your secret?"

Yami smiled and remained silent.

Please, Review!

Anette Chase


End file.
